Yesterday afternoon, the Milwaukee Bucks picked up a clutch 124-117 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers which snapped their two-game losing streak from this past week. Milwaukee came up big during the second half in their recent win, as they outscored the Clippers by nine points in the third quarter, and by ten points overall during the second half. Damian Lillard went lights-out during the fourth quarter, in which he dropped 16 of his 35 points on four of seven shooting. Giannis Antetokounmpo followed up with a 34-point double-double.
This win improves the Bucks to 42-23. They sit in the second seed within the Eastern Conference by a half-game. Even though Milwaukee is eight games behind the Boston Celtics for the first seed, the Bucks must do everything in their power to get a win streak going, and somewhat compete with the Celtics for that number one spot. The Milwaukee Bucks will play the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. For the Los Angeles Clippers, they drop to 41-22, which places them at the fourth seed in the Western Conference. Los Angeles will play at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
Milwaukee Bucks Riveting 124-117 Win over the Clippers
The first quarter between these two teams was as intense as you could possibly make it. Both teams went back and forth with the lead, as they tied the game up four different times, and the lead was changed more than a dozen times. Los Angeles had a seven-point lead at one point, which was the biggest lead of the first quarter, and while the Milwaukee Bucks trailed 33-29 with three quarters left to play, Damian Lillard led both teams with 12 points.
Los Angeles tried multiple times to take the life out of the Bucks and run away with the lead. However, this Bucks team showed a ton of resilience. This game would be tied up at 57 with about a minute and a half to go before halftime. Three different Clippers scored to give Los Angeles a three-point lead going into the break. During the second quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 10 points. ‘The Greek Freak’ finished with 14 first-half points, and Lillard recorded 13 first-half points. The Clippers were led by Ivica Zubac who had 12 points.
Milwaukee gained a bunch of momentum during this third quarter, which was one of the reasons why they got this win, and didn’t fall on the other end of a three-game losing streak. The Clippers’ big-name players were not able to get much accomplished in this quarter. During the third, the Bucks outscored the Clippers 32-23 to take a six-point heading into the final quarter of play.
One of the big reasons why the Bucks were able to take the lead was because of their ability to knock down shots in the open court. The Milwaukee Bucks went 13 for 24 from the field, which averages to around 54 percent, while the Los Angeles Clippers went eight for 22 from the field which is about 36 percent. Los Angeles also committed four turnovers during the third quarter while Milwaukee didn’t commit any turnovers in those 12 minutes of action.
With eight and a half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Clippers regained the lead to a score of 98-96 after Bones Hyland knocked down a three-point attempt. Milwaukee took their lead back and made sure Los Angeles never held the lead again. Although they were close to taking the lead back multiple times, the Clippers could not get the job done. The big reason for that was the play of Damian Lillard, who knocked down five free-throws and three three-pointers to give him 16 in the fourth and 35 on the night.
In 38 minutes of action, Damian Lillard went 11 for 19 with 35 points along with seven rebounds, and 11 assists. Dame also went seven for 13 from beyond the arc. Giannis Antetokounmpo followed Lillard’s performance with 34 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists, a steal and a block. Malik Beasley had 17 points in the Bucks win.
Norman Powell led the Clippers with 26 points. Powell also had seven rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Los Angeles’ center Ivica Zubac had 17, and Terrance Mann scored 16 points in the loss. The biggest problem for the Clippers yesterday afternoon was their three-point shooting, where they went 14 for 47 from downtown, which equals to about 30 percent. As a unit, Milwaukee shot 49 percent from the floor, and 45 percent from three-point range.
After the game Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said,
“Those two guys, they’re great players, and we understand that,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said of Lillard and Antetokounmpo. “They had a good game. I thought Dame set the tone early and then took over the game late. Once he got going, it was hard to stop him. We tried to blitz, tried to do some different things, but he had it going and made some big shots.”
The Clippers had two tipoffs in 22 hours factoring in the hours lost from daylight savings. They decided it would be best to rest the injured Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, and because of the Clippers’ crazy schedule due to sharing an arena with the Lakers, Tyronn Lue is excited about the Clippers getting their own arena next season. He said,
“Very extreme,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “That’s why we’re just so excited to get to the Intuit Dome next year, get our own place.”
Can the Clippers regroup after this tough loss? How will the Bucks go about facing off against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night? Can Milwaukee get two wins in a row?
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